TIMBER RIGHTS
Royal Commission Sought CLAIMS OF MAORIS Deputation Waits On Prime Minister A request that the whole of the Ngati-Tuwaretoa timber claims against the Government should. be investigated by a Royal Commission of one or more Supreme Court judges, and that the Treaty of Waitangi should be written into the Statute Books at the corning session of Parliament, or, alternatively, that the judicial rights of Maoris under the Treaty of Waitangi be defined by the Court of Appeal, was made to the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, by representatives of the Maori people on Monday last.
On October 22, 1938, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal brought by Te Heu Heu Tukino, on behalf of the Ngati-Tuwharetoa Maoris, from a judgment of Mr. Justice Smith in an action against the Aotea District Maori Land Board, in respect of timbercutting and other rights over part of the land belonging to the tribe. Subsequently Tukino obtained leave to appeal to the Privy Council, a condition being that security of £5OO be found within three months. Yesterday in the Court of Appeal Mr. M. H. Hampson, Rotorua, counsel for Tukino, said that security had not been found, and as the time limit had expired it seemed to him the present form of appeal could not be continued. However, in view of the great .importance of the matters involved, he wished to explain the position to the Court.
Following the obtaining of leave to appeal, said Mr. Hampson, a meeting of representatives of all the Native tribes of New Zealand had been held, and it had been resolved that before considering the question of finding security and the expense of an appeal to the Privy Council, the Prime Minister should be interviewed and certain matters put to him. Conference With Minister.' A conference was held in February with the Minister of Native Affairs, Mr. Langstone, and the Minister indicated his willingness to extend the time for finding security for a further two months. However, it was pointed out to him that he had no power to do that, and he was then asked that the Tuwharetoa Trust Board should find the security. T o that he was unwilling to consent.
On Monday, counsel continued, the representatives of the Maori people met the Prime Minister tnd placed before him resolutions of the utmost importance to the Maoris, and, indeed, to everybody in New Zealand. If the Minister’s reply was satisfactory from the Maoris’ point of view, it would be unnecessary to continue with Tukino’s appeal; but if it proved unsatisfactory, it was intended to ask the Privy Council for special leave to appeal, which would get over the difficulty which arose through the non-
finding of the security ordbred by the Court of Appeal. Mr. R. E. I’ope, for the Aotea District Maori Land Board, said the board wished to make it clear that it did not oppose the bringing of an appeal and that it would have consented to an appeal being taken to the Privy Council, but it felt compelled to take the viewpoint that the present appeal w r as now out of time and that the Court of Appeal had no further jurisdiction in the matter.
The Court of Appeal consisted of the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), Mr. Justice Ostler, Mr. Justice Smith, and Mr. Justice Fair.
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Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 13
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558TIMBER RIGHTS Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 13
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